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December 10, 2016

"After hitting a record of nearly 20 million in 1979, the number of
American factory workers has plunged during each of the last five
recessions and each time has never recovered. Today, 12.3 million people
are employed in U.S. factories, a loss of nearly eight million jobs.
Forecasters in The Wall Street Journal’s monthly survey of economists doubt the numbers of bygone years can be restored." Across the world manufacturing jobs have fallen to 1941 levels due to improved productivity. "Improvements in assembly-line technologies and the deployment of
industrial robots allow U.S. manufacturers to produce more goods than
ever before, but with much smaller workforces. Even if all outsourcing
were ended immediately, the march of technology would put steady
downward pressure on manufacturing employment." Trump's plans to impose tariffs on imported goods could trigger a trade war resulting in a reduction in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Source: Josh Zumbrun, "Economists Doubt the U.S. Can Regain Many of the Factory Jobs Lost in Recent Decades," WSJ 12/8/16. Think about this: Who in America is willing to work in manufacturing at Asian wages? If they were paid even the minimum wage in the U.S. the cost of goods at Walmart would skyrocket. Actually, the U.S. made goods would never be sold by Walmart because the company would buy from low-wage Asian sources.